Subtlety and restraint have their place in cinema, but Robert Rodriguez‘s Machete Kills isn’t it. The sequel to Rodriguez’s 2010 action thriller features deadly broads, weaponized boobs, a cackling madman, President Charlie Sheen (or President Carlos Estevez, rather), and a Machete (Danny Trejo) who’s just been pulled back from the brink of death. Watch the explosive first teaser trailer after the jump.

Cast your mind back to the release of 2 Fast 2 Furious, a film that was derided from nearly all corners, and then look at this week’s release of Fast & Furious 6. It took a decade, but Universal’s car-racing franchise has evolved into “event” status. Whether you like the films or not, there’s no arguing that under the stewardship of Justin Lin, who took over as director with the third movie, this series of films has exploded as a fan favorite. Lin knows how to manage action, and he’s had a long-term plan to consistently up the ante on that front.

Much more importantly, Lin realized that consistent characters are what bring people back to the films. He talked Vin Diesel back into the fold and then developed a suite of characters to fill out four individual films that ultimately work as one interlocked narrative. It’s an action-movie soap opera, sure, but one featuring precisely the sort of reliance on character that very few other action series get right.

The sixth film pushes outward in every direction: there are more characters and amped-up drama, and the action setpieces are more improbable and ridiculous than ever. Fast & Furious 6 won’t ever be held up as a major moral statement, but there’s a lot to be said for the series’ general tendency to trumpet values in friendship and family. There’s a sense of values here that could also be present in, say, the Die Hard movies, if the last couple McClane sequels weren’t such botch jobs.

With Fast & Furious 6 in theaters now, we’re curious to know how you feel about the film. Does the action work, and do the interlinked stories and characters provide enough meat to flesh out all the time between setpieces? Let us know in the comments below, where spoilers are allowed and encouraged. Read More »

It’s more or less impossible to reboot a massively popular franchise for the big screen without drawing the ire of a few fans, but one major criticsm plaguing Star Trek Into Darkness in recent days has nothing to do with J.J. Abrams‘ Klingon redesign or use of parallel timelines. Midway through the film, there’s a brief scene in which the character Carol Marcus (Alice Eve) strips down to her underwear for no apparent reason. Some fans called filmmakers out for being sexist, and so far writer Damon Lindelof has stepped up to offer his apologies.

The minor controversy was fresh in my mind when I went to go see Fast & Furious 6, which, as you’d expect, outdoes Star Trek Into Darkness‘ tiny sliver of cheesecake on every level. All of the female stars of Fast & Furious 6 are conventionally attractive to begin with, and none shy away from wearing form-fitting outfits or showing off a bit of cleavage. Additionally, scantily clad female extras are used in several sequences as little more than set decoration. And yet I walked away from Fast & Furious 6 thinking that director Justin Lin and his crew could teach the Star Trek team a thing or two about portraying female characters on screen.

The Fast and the Furious films have always done well, but 2011’s Fast Five really kicked the franchise up to a whole new level in terms of box office, critical praise, and gleefully over-the-top ridiculousness. With some luck, Fast & Furious 6 could raise the bar even higher. That shot of a car shooting out of burning airplane, for example, seemed like a great start.

Helmed by returning director Justin Lin, the latest installment of the car-centric series sees Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) turning to Dom (Vin Diesel), Brian (Paul Walker) and the rest of the gang for help in catching a dangerous mastermind (Luke Evans). In exchange, our favorite thieves will get full pardons so they can return home. Complicating matters is the unexpected reappearance of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) whom they believed to be dead. Watch the last trailer after the jump.

Even among this summer’s crowded lineup of blockbuster sequels, Fast and Furious 6 manages to stand out as one of the most highly anticipated releases of early summer. The trailers and promos so far have been gloriously high-octane, highlighting the fancy automotive tricks that are the series’ claim to fame.

The newest featurette highlights still more explosive new footage, but also reveals a bit more about the story and characters. Vin Diesel, Luke Evans, Michelle Rodriguez, and more discuss what’s driving the players, and how they bounce off of each other. Watch it after the jump.

The final poster for the finalJustin LinFast and Furious movie has just been released. The tagline reads “All Roads Lead To This,” with a full hero shot of Fast and Furious 6 cast members including Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson and Jordana Brewster. Noticeably absent are the bad guys, including Luke Evans and Gina Carano. I’m sure we’ll get more of them as we approach the film’s May 24 release. Check it out below. Read More »

What does it take for a snail to become fast enough to compete in the Indy 500? According to this new trailer for DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo, a terrible car accident and a nitrous oxide wash ought to do the trick.

Ryan Reynolds voices the lead, an ordinary garden snail with not-so-ordinary dreams. While the first trailer focused mostly on his burning desire to race — an apparent impossibility considering it takes him 17 minutes to travel one yard — the second offers a better look at how he might actually achieve that goal, and the friends who’ll be there to help him. Watch the new trailer after the jump.

Fast cars, big muscles and scantily clothed women might be distinguishing aspects of the Fast and Furious movies, but they’re not what makes them good. What makes (some of) the five previous films good are the human relationships. At its heart, the Fast and Furious films are about family and in the first featurette for Fast and Furious 6, that’s prominently on display.

In the following video, co-stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez discuss the relationship between their characters, the reveal that Rodriguez’s character, Leddy, would be returning, and how that messes with Dom’s state of mind. It’s a very different look at the May 24th release from Justin Lin. Read More »

Ah, yes, the Fast and the Furious franchise: Where a man can fly from one fancy speeding car to another in the middle of the highway while a tank wreaks havoc in the background. See that photo and more after the jump. Also: